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How I Mastered the Hemmer Foot

We Carry
by Sara Snuggerud in Sewing Tips

So many people have no clue this foot even exists. When I show this foot in my Sewing Machine Mastery classes, half the room usually exclaims, “I could have used that foot on my last project!” And the other half of the room never took the time to figure it out and threw it to the side.

Hemmer feet have been around for ages. You see them in with old sewing machines because it often is used with only a straight stitch. And those old straight stitch only machines could hem like the wind!

I made myself master the hemmer foot when I was a teenager.

I had picked out a dress pattern to make for a high school dance and it had a ton of layered ruffles on the back plus an endless dress hem cut on the bias. Mom handed me a hemmer foot and said, “Use this.”

Hemmer feet can take miles of hems and turn them into short work at the sewing machine. These feet are designed to turn the fabric once and then twice to hide the raw edge. They can tame super sheer fabric (I would not hem any other way!) to flannels and even knit fabrics. The scroll in the foot twirls the fabric to the perfect width for the entire length of fabric.

There are two tricks to learn when using a hemmer foot:

  1.  How to start the fabric into the foot.
  2.  How to keep the fabric feeding correctly

Once you master these two techniques, the hemmer feet work 100% of the time. The two videos below will help you master the starting and feeding of the fabric into the hemmer feet.

Hemmer feet are available for all brands of sewing machines and are great for a variety of fabric weights. When a serger is not available, I reach for a hemmer foot!

Bernina makes 7 different hemmer feet and Husqvarna viking has 4 hemmer feet.

Click here to watch the Bernina hemmer foot video.

Click here to watch the Husqvarna Viking hemmer foot video.

 

If you are looking to purchase your first hemmer foot and don’t know what size to start with, I recommend the following sizes. These hemmer foot sizes handle medium weight fabrics such as cotton, linen and even some sheer fabric.

Bernina – Foot #63 – finishes at a 3mm sized hem

Husqvarna Viking – 3mm Shell Hemmer foot